


Coulson's Children

by Axandrela



Series: A Family of Spies and Superheroes [3]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Agents acting like kids, Gen, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-06
Updated: 2016-03-06
Packaged: 2018-05-25 00:50:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6173503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Axandrela/pseuds/Axandrela
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They weren't agents. They were children. At least they acted like it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coulson's Children

**Author's Note:**

> This was written in like September so it only includes up to then in the timeline.
> 
> Also should I edit 'tell me a story' so that it will fit in this series? And be more up to date with current AC canon? Not much would change but there are some things...

He had never thought of himself as being parental, but something about that boy changed him. Clint's smirk was so innocent despite his eyes holding suck darkness. It became his mission to lighten the weight on this teenager's shoulders. Make it so Clint's smirk was a sight seen everyday. He found the boy in the range shooting without a guard until his arm bled, and he listened as Clint told him of the memories and dreams plaguing his sleep. He gained the teenager's trust and became his confidante. A circus is not a place for a child to grow up, let alone a circus filled with criminals. The boy had scars on his heart from lack of a normal childhood. So he persisted, giving the boy stability and care, alowing him to learn. He found that the teenager was facinated by physics and mechanics, using what he learned to improve his archery and build trick arrows. Over time his plans succeeded, far more than he anticipated, yet Clint's beligerance and pranks only increased his fondness for the boy.

Clint had been given a partner. Barbara Morse. Melinda was her SO, and it only made sense. The two of them laughed at the younger pair, the banter and arguments were incessant yet so was the flirting. Bobbi was desperate to be the best, and that was the girl's problem. As a child she spent her time between the library and the dojo near her house. She was too smart and driven and because of that couldn't understand why the other children were so easily facinated by the most mundane things. Her desire to be the best led her to S.H.E.I.L.D with no distractions, and she thrived in successful missions, but failure in her eyes broke her. He found her after a disastrous mission in the gym, her hands were bloody and tears ran down her cheeks, yet she didn't stop hitting the punching bag. He held the young woman as she cried over the people she couldn't save.

Of course Clint had recruited his target. The mission had been to elliminate the threat. Well with her on their side there was no threat. Natasha trusted not a single soul. Being raised to kill would do that to anyone. A glare almost always graced her features yet he had seen her secretive smiles at Clint's antics when she thought he was looking the other way. He decided she wouldn't trust him any time soon, so he nurtured the trust growing between her and Clint. And she grew to trust him as a result. When Clint was in the infirmary after being deafened in an explosion, he choked back his own worry and panic, to hold her. Her exaustion causing her walls to fall and tears to come crashing. She was trained not to have emotion. Not to feel. Not to care. Not to trust. Not to love. And that was evil. No child should live like that. So he held her as all the pain of her life poured out like a tsunami. 

Delta Squad might as well have been children. They had to be reminded to go to sleep, to eat, and to be on time. He had to lecture them on not listening, disipline them for disobeying and clean up the mess after they decided to cause mischief. Every single day it seemed that he had to repremand them for crawling through the vents rather than using the floor to travel. It was only worse when Morse joined them on missions, and after May left the feild these instances only increased. The constant com chatter was doubled, and the explosions seemed to be more frequent and dangerous with her around them. They joked and teased constantly acting like lippy teenagers. He sighed in exasperation after missions when he would find them, either all three or any combination asleep curled together on a couch, with pizza boxes and pop cans everywhere, covered in feathers or confetti or silly string or welts and paint. They deserved proper childhoods after missing out when they were young.

Then he died. He was forbidden from telling them he was alive. May knew but Clint and Natasha couldn't know. It could damage the Avengers Initiative. Bobbi would tell them, so she couldn't know either. He was given a new team. They were more of children than his old team. FitzSimmons and Skye were so naive and innocent that the three younger geniuses wormed their way easily into his heart. They were more open than the elder trio, making it hard not to become parental to them.

Skye was desperate for a family due to never having one before, and more than willing to accept the odd one that was offered to her, much like his favorite archer. FitzSimmons brilliance had kept them hidden in science textbooks through their childhood, just as his biologist/specialist had isolated herself, but FitzSimmons had each other. Ward also earned a place in his heart. The closed off specialist reminded him of his assassin in how broken he was without admitting it. Maybe he missed his three older kids too much, but the subtle similarities just made him care for them more.

He was torn when S.H.E.I.L.D. fell. Ward was Hydra. Fitz was unconscious. Jemma and Skye were broken. He had an agent with questionable loyalties in Trip. He had no clue what happened to Bobbi. Clint had disappeared. As had Natasha after being on TV.

He needed eyes in Hydra. Jemma volunteered but she needed backup. So he tracked Bobbi down. She was safe, screaming at him and Melinda and almost in tears that he was alive, but safe and willing to join his team. She gave him names and contact information for others that would be assets to a weakened and rebuilding S.H.E.I.L.D.

Once everyone was back at the Playground and safe he marveled at the dinamics of the team. The base was aptly named, it was a playground for the children inside his agents. Bobbi, and Mack were older siblings to the team. Jemma and Skye both looked at Bobbi as though she was the greatest role model ever. Hunter and Mack helped Fitz through his brain damage, and how could Trip not find a place in his heart. Trip was an agent after his own heart. Yet their line of work wouldn't allow them to rest. Trip died, Skye became Daisy, and Simmons disappeared. Fitz broke. He wasn't sure how he felt when 'Big Sister' Bobbi began covering for Fitz, but he supposed that since they got Simmons back, and they weren't fighting that it was okay. After all they were all just kids at heart.

Clint and Natasha were moved out but still his kids. Bobbi and Hunter were the bad influence bad influence big siblings. Mack was the big brother who actually followed the rules... Most of the time. Ward was grounded for life and disowned. And FitzSimmons and Skye had moved from being naive little 8 year olds to dramatic, disobedient pre-teens.

They weren't just his agents. They were his kids.


End file.
